A Simple Request
by HecateA
Summary: When Bill asked, Fleur couldn't have suggested an easier anniversary present. But Bill is so, so out of his comfort zone... Oneshot.


**Author's note: **Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Hogwarts: **Assignment #9, Survival Studies #1 Write about a task that's considered simple.

**Warnings: **NA

* * *

**A Simple Request **

"Hey, Mum," Bill said, closing the kitchen door behind him as he swung back into the house.

"Hello sweetheart," Mum said, taking her hands out of the soapy dishwater and drying them on the tea towel thrown over her shoulder. "Did you see your brothers outside? They're meant to be degnoming the garden, but there's been a lot of running off to play Quidditch in the orchard recently… well, I say recently, but there's nothing new there..."

"Didn't see them, no," Bill said coming forwards to kiss the top of her head. He waited for a comment about the heel on the boots he was wearing or his hair or his earring choice of the day, but they didn't come. Mum had been mellow since the Battle; Bill might even enjoy a lecture today. To be honest, part of him was hoping that asking this favour of her would help—even if he had no real choice but to ask for her expertise…

Mum hugged him once her hands were dry.

"You're here early," Mum said. "I thought you were coming over for supper, not lunch…"

"We are," Bill said. "Yeah, we are, and Fleur will be there too. But I… I wanted to ask a favour first, without her here."

"Is everything okay?" Mum asked.

"Yeah, for sure," Bill said. "Everything is… I was asking Fleur what she wanted to do for our first anniversary, you know. Big milestone, but bad day."

"Not a bad day," Mum said, tapping his arm. "A complicated one."

"Right," Bill said. "Anyways, she said that all she wanted was a piece of cake."

"Cake?" Mum asked.

"Cake," Bill said. "Apparently she didn't get a piece before the Death Eaters arrived at the actual reception."

"I hadn't realized that," Mum said.

"Neither did I, I had three," Bill said. "And it was delicious. Anyways, so I was going to get cake for our anniversary but… well, then I thought it would be more meaningful if I made it myself, you know?"

"If you made it," she repeated. "Oh, sweetheart, that's a wonderful idea…"

"Thanks," Bill said. "But here's the thing; I tried to make it and… Mum, I didn't know it was possible to mess it up so bad. I was fairly good at Potions, but this... Every time I've tried, it's just been fiasco after fiasco. The first cake was like a rock, I had to use anticorrosive potions to get its remnants out of the pan. Then the second I tried making was like soup, no matter how long I kept it in the oven—and it burned anyways. I don't even understand how that happened. And the third time… I don't want to talk about the third time, Mum."

Bill shook his head.

She bit back a smile.

"William Weasley, are you asking for my help?"

Bill nodded. "You just… you made it look so easy, Mum. You'd just have one kid dangling from one arm, one kid holding on to each leg, and you'd be mixing up something while doing dishes and… baking is hard."

"Oh, hush," Mum said. "It's not hard, it just takes practise and I've had plenty of it. Let's get you practising. I have a very good white chocolate cake recipe that we can tweak just a little so it tastes like that wedding cake, if we get our hands on some almond extract… with a quick ganache and some raspberry jam, we should be able to get quite close."

Bill looked at her, stunned, and shook his head.

"You're magic, Mum," he said, hugging her.

Mum laughed and tapped his back. "There, there…"

* * *

"Oh, sweetheart, it's your anniversary, I'll take care of those…" Molly said, attempting to swat Fleur out of the kitchen.

Her daughter-in-law simply put the pile of small dessert plates, topped by a handful of spoons, down on the counter and wrapped her arms around Molly's waist.

"I will never say this in front of him because I am sure he worked on it very hard," Fleur said softly in that carefully enunciated English of hers. "But I have tasted my husband's cooking. I did not marry him for it. I know he had help making that cake. So thank you."

* * *

**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping Wars; Hogwarts

**Individual Challenge(s): **Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Gryffindor MC (x2); Beauxbatons MC; Summer Vacation; Seeds; Ways to the Heart; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (New Beginnings); Themes & Things B (Joy); Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Word Count: **707

* * *

_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Bill Weasley/Fleur Delacour (Winged Wolf)

**List (Prompt): **Spring Big List (Baked Goods)


End file.
